by Gen Griffin
“Hey. It's okay.” Addison knelt down beside Trish. “Its just a mess. We can fix a mess. House needed a good cleaning anyways.”
“Curtis broke into my house,” she whispered.
“Probably.”
“No. I'm sure. My wedding ring is sitting on the buffet. I didn't put it there. It was in the bottom of my nightstand drawer.”
“Okay. Curtis broke in. We knew he probably wasn't gone.” Addison made no effort to hide the worry in his eyes. “Go back to the car with Gracie. Let us check out the house.”
Trish whimpered and shook her head. “I need to see what he's done.”
“Not before I make sure he's gone.” David reached for Trish as if he were going to pick her up.
“You can't carry me,” she said to him. “I weigh too much. Not the kind of girl who gets carried. Give me a second and I'll stand up.”
David and Addison exchanged a look. David scooped Trish into his arms and picked her up. “You're not that heavy,” David informed her as he carried her back to the SUV.
Trish stiffened for a minute and then snuggled into him. “You're a good guy.”
“Damn right I am. Gracie, open the car door.”
Gracie opened the front passenger's side door on the glossy Cadillac SUV. David set Trish down in the seat and then he looked over at Gracie. “Y'all go home.”
“Home?”
“Yeah. Home. Take Trish to Momma and Dad's house with you. We've got a funeral in the morning and its going to take hours to deal with the mess inside the house. Y'all go home, get showers and go to bed.”
“You're not coming with us?”
“I need to deal with the mess,” David gestured back towards Grover's house. “Let Addy file an official police report. Curtis has been here. We need to make sure that goes on record.”
“I can't just leave you to deal with my mess,” Trish made a halfhearted effort to get back out of the car. David very gently pushed her back in the seat.
“Yes. I can. Dealing with messes is what I do. Just ask Gracie.” David winked at Gracie.
The blonde rolled her eyes. “He's good with disasters. Come on. David's right. You're going to need a good night's sleep for the funeral tomorrow. Your parents are coming back into town in the morning, right?”
“Yes.” Trish nodded. “Even more reason for me to get out of this car and go clean the house. Mom is going to be horrified when she sees the house has been destroyed. She wanted a lot of those pictures that were hanging in the hallway and now they're all ruined.”
“I'll take care of it,” David said.
“Curtis trashed the whole house-.”
“I said I would take care of it.” David took Trish's hand in his. “Trust me, okay?”
“I trust you. I just feel bad.”
“Don't.” David leaned down and gently kissed Trish lightly on the lips. “I'll take care of you. That's my job.”
“I love you,” she said as she kissed him back.
“I love you too.”
“Hey, we need to get this taxi on the road.” Addison walked up to the driver's side of the SUV. He gestured for his sister to move. “I just talked to Granny Pearl. She says the only car she saw over here today was Kerry's cruiser. Apparently he stopped here to tell David something about the DNA results on the body from under the trailer.”
“That's weird.” Gracie didn't move from the driver's seat. “I'm driving.”
“Like hell you are.” Addy leaned against the side of the car. “Kristy just called me.”
“Kristy?” Trish asked.
Gracie frowned. “Katie's sister Kristy?”
“Yes. That Kristy.” Addison took his sister by the arm and gently but firmly extracted her from the driver's seat.
“Why is Kristy calling you at 10 o'clock at night?”
“Because Katie is in labor and Ian won't answer his fucking phone.” Addison slammed his fist down against the side of the truck. “Sorry son-of-a-bitch.”
“Great.” David closed his eyes and leaned against the SUV. He held up two fingers. “Promise me two things, Malone.”
Addy raised one eyebrow at him questioningly. “What?”
“When you find my cousin, drown the miserable bastard in the bayou.”
“Gladly.” Addison sat down in the driver's seat of the Cadillac. “What's the second thing?”
“Leave me a blank, signed police report so I can go ahead and do all the paperwork on the vandalism inside the house. I want to have all my papers in order for when I finally catch up with Curtis.”
“They're upstairs in my apartment. I'm wanting to say they're in the drawer of the coffee table.”
“Signed?”
“Run and grab one real quick and it will be.” Addison began adjusting the seat controls on the SUV. He pressed a button and the seat slid forward instead of back.
“I'll be back in a second.” David released Trish's hand and jogged off across the yard towards Addison's apartment next door.
Addy continued fiddling with the controls for the seat.
“Ian really won't answer his phone?” Gracie asked after a minute.
“Kristy says he won't. Call him and we can find out for ourselves.” Addison gestured for Gracie to make the call. Gracie pulled her phone out and dialed a number.
Two seconds later, they were treated to the sound of Ian's voicemail.
“He's turned his phone off,” Gracie said.
“Beautiful.” Addison took the phone from his sister. “Ian. It's Addy. I'm about to head to the hospital to check on your wife. I swear to fucking God that if you don't get your ass to the hospital before your daughter comes into this world, you will not like me. Seriously. No excuses.”
Addison hung up the phone.
“He's been in one of his moods,” Gracie said quietly.
“Yeah. Cal told me that this morning.” Addison tried to adjust the seat again and wound up with his knees in the dashboard. “I hate this car. Where did it even come from?”
“Um, it's Miss Loretta's.”
“We're in Miss Loretta's car?” Addison poked the buttons again. “How did I miss that?”
“I think you've been pretty doped up. Your meds must be starting to wear off finally.”
“Why are we driving Miss Loretta's car?” Addison put the question to David as he jogged back up to the driver's side window.
“Because we've run out of vehicles,” David pushed a blank police report and an ink pen past the glass.
“We ran out of vehicles?” Addison took the forms and pushed them against the steering wheel to sign them. “How the fuck did that happen?”
“Trish's car got wrecked by the homicidal maniac. My Toyota burned up in the fire. Your truck got driven off the boat dock at Hollow Point landing. Cal's truck got left at the hospital and now Katie has it, which means its probably back at the hospital.”
“Damn. What do we have left?”
“Um.” David took the signed papers back from Addy. “Trish's truck, the blue Chevy and my wrecker. Cal borrowed this one from Miss Loretta after I borrowed the Chevy from him yesterday.”
“Three cars between how many people?” Addy was frowning now.
“You. Me. Trish. Gracie. Cal.” David shrugged. “Katie when Ian decides to go MIA.”
“We might want to make a trip to the car lot.”
“Yeah. It's been on my to-do list for a week.” David neatly folded the police report up and put it in his pocket. “Take the girls home and then go deal with Ian. Let me know if you need anything.”
“I need more painkillers, an energy drink and not to have a bullet wound in my chest. Can you do that for me?” Addison eyed David.
David reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He took out a $50 and handed it to Addy. “There's a bottle of aspirin, a Red Bull and some flowers for Katie from the hospital gift shop. Tell her they're from Ian.”
Addy shook his head in disgust as he took the money. “Call me if you kill Curt
is. I'll file a report saying he attacked you first.”
“Thanks. You're a real saint.” David shot an exhausted looking grin through the window of the car. “Don't wreck Momma's Cadillac. She won't be very understanding about it. Love y'all.”
Addison laughed as he put the Cadillac in reverse and headed out into the night with Trish beside him and Gracie in the backseat.
Chapter 35
“Curtis isn't here,” Cal announced as David walked back into the trashed house.
“You were supposed to wait for me before you went looking for him.”
“You took too long. Besides, I can take him.” Cal held up a familiar .357 revolver.
“I thought you weren't carrying a gun anymore?” David kicked broken glass across the floor. Every single plate, bowl and cup in the kitchen had been quite literally thrown across the living room. Broken antique china carpeted the floor.
“I changed my mind after Addy took a bullet and the shooter got away.” Cal tucked the handgun back into his belt. “Only to come back less than a week later and piss on the couch.”
“He pissed on the couch?”
“The couch smells like piss. I'm assuming he pissed on it.”
“He probably pissed on it. Or maybe Grover pissed on it. Either way, the couch needs to go.” David sighed and leaned back against the wall. “That's a heavy motherfucking couch.”
“Just out of curiosity, what do you think he was looking for?”
David grimaced. “In this house? Who the fuck knows. I found over a million dollars in jewelry in one of the- shit.”
“You found what?” Cal did a double take.
David spun around and bolted up the stairs. Two minutes later, he was holding up the shoe box where Trish had hidden the stolen jewelry. “Fuck me. He stole the damned jewelry.”
“What jewelry are you talking about?” Cal demanded.
“The stolen jewelry.”
“Curtis stole Trish's jewelry.”
“More like Curtis stole jewelry that Grover and Ricky previously stole from a museum exhibit. Curtis stole Trish's stolen jewelry.”
“Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me.” Cal looked from the shoe box to David and then back to the shoe box. The floor of the room was covered in torn clothing. The dresser had been flipped over and the mirror shattered on the floor. “You're not kidding.”
“I'm not even clever enough to make this mess up,” David clarified. “Ricky and Grover stole some very expensive jewelry a very long time ago. It was too hot for them to unload, so they split it in half and decided to get rid of it after the heat died down. Grover kept his half hidden inside the box spring of Trish's bed. We found it the other day.”
“What did your Dad do with his half?”
“No idea,” David admitted. “But the jewelry is very distinctive, very expensive and very stolen.”
“If Trish's ex stole that jewelry thinking that he could pawn it, we might not have to worry about hunting him down. He might get busted all on his own for selling stolen property.” Cal rubbed his hands together.
“Maybe. That would be nice.” David tossed the empty shoe box onto the ground. “I guess it really doesn't matter, does it?”
“You mean him stealing your stolen jewelry?” Cal let out a tired laugh. “I don't think it matters at all. To be honest, I think he just did you a favor. If it was too hot to get rid of then you didn't really need to have it in your possession.”
“Good point.” David scanned the mess in the room one last time. He turned back to Cal. “Its going to take us all night to make this house presentable.”
“Any chance I can talk you into postponing the cleanup until morning?” Cal asked.
“Trish's folks are going to be here in the morning.”
“Any chance I can talk you into letting me call Hadley Jacobs and making this her mess instead of ours?”
“It's after ten o'clock at night.”
“I'm going to offer her a hefty bonus. Real hefty.” Cal pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and held it up. “She's been cleaning Momma's place ever since Deena Greene had back surgery and retired. Hadley has three kids and her worthless ex-husband has been in jail for the last year. She's running the cleaning business on the side. Give me five minutes to talk to her.”
“Go for it,” David said.
Cal dialed the number and put the phone on speaker. It rang twice and then a tired female voice came on the line.
“Hello?”
“Hi Hadley. Sorry for calling you so late. This is Cal Walker. I need a favor.”
“Cal?” Hadley's voice perked up. “It's okay. I wasn't in bed yet. What can I do for you?”
“I need a house cleaned from top to bottom.”
“Sure. That's not a problem. Are y'all throwing another party?” Hadley sounded positively cheery now. “Just tell me the date and I'll schedule it in my calender.”
Cal smirked at the phone. “Actually, its not my house and there isn't going to be any party.”
“Oh.” Her disappointment was subtle but clear.
“But I'll pay you twice what Momma pays for to clean before a party.”
“What?” The shock was clear in her tone.
“Thing is, I need the place clean by morning.”
“By morning?” Hadley asked. “It's ten o'clock at night. How big of a house are we talking about?”
“Do you know where Grover Shallowman lives?”
“Yes. Doesn't everyone?”
“It's Grover's house.”
“Oh. I thought Grover died?” Hadley said.
“He did. His granddaughter is living here. The funeral is tomorrow and she's got the rest of her family coming in.”
“And the house needs to be cleaned before they get here?” Hadley guessed.
“Yes.” Cal took a deep breath.
“What aren't you telling me, Calvin?” Hadley wasn't an idiot. “You're offering me $3,000 to clean a 1,500 square foot house. My normal rate for a house that size is $300.”
“The house was broken into sometime this evening by Trish's ex-husband. He trashed the place.”
“When you say trashed-?”
“He broke most of the furniture. There is shattered glass everywhere. He even pissed on the couch.”
“Amazing. And you want the entire place presentable by morning, don't you?” Hadley asked tiredly.
“Yes.”
She sighed. “You better be glad that I owe $2,500 on my van and the loan has a really high interest rate. If I weren't so desperate to get rid of that car payment, I'd tell you that you were out of luck.”
Cal smiled. “You on your way?”
“Just give me 15 minutes to wake my mother up and tell her where I'm going. She's going to have to get up with the kids in the morning and put them on the bus.”
“Thank you Hadley. You're a lifesaver.”
“I'm probably not going to be able to save the couch if he peed on it,” she said. “You might need some new furniture. I'm a cleaning lady. Not a miracle worker.”
“Think its too late to wake up Jimmy Lee Franks?”
Hadley laughed. “I'm pretty sure he'll get up and go down to the furniture store in his jammies and bunny slippers for you, Cal. There isn't anyone in this town who'll turn down the Mayor's son when he's got money to burn.”
Cal smirked as David rolled his eyes. “You don't happen to have Jimmy Lee's number on hand, do you?”
“No, but its in phone book darlin'. Try the yellow pages.”
“Thank you.”
“I'll see you in 10 minutes,” Hadley promised as she hung up the phone.
“God you're evil,” David said to Cal.
“I'm efficient, not evil. They'll be well compensated for their time. Haven't you learned anything from Momma?” Cal grinned as he pulled up Jimmy Lee's number on the online directory and then hit the call button.
He winked at David as the phone was answered by a groggy sounding man.
“Jimm
y Lee, it's Cal Walker. I need spend some money and I was wondering if you might be able help me out..”
Chapter 36
“Holy mother of houses,” Trish whispered as Addison pulled the Cadillac straight into the oak-lined, circular driveway that lead up to a full scale southern plantation house.
“You haven't seen it before?” Gracie asked.
“No,” Trish said. “Is it a museum or a bed and breakfast?”
“No. It's just a house. Cal's parent's house, if you want to get technical.” Gracie opened the door of the Cadillac as Addison eased the SUV to a stop in midway through the circular driveway.
“Y'all call this a house?” Trish eyed the humongous structure doubtfully. She felt like she'd fallen out of her everyday life and been unceremoniously dropped onto the set of Gone With The Wind.
Gracie smiled tiredly at her. “Come on, Trish. It's just a house. It doesn't bite. I promise.”
“Its the fanciest house I've ever seen in my life. I'm exhausted and wearing grubby clothes. I don't belong in this house.” Trish shook her head doubtfully.
Gracie yanked open the door on the SUV and tugged Trish gently out of the car by her wrist. The front doors of the massive house swung open.
“What on earth are you children doing?” Loretta asked as she walked down the sweeping front steps in a silken monogrammed robe and a pair of flip-flops.
Gracie and Trish exchanged a look. Trish shrugged. Gracie turned to face Miss Loretta. “Its been a long day.”
Loretta peered into the driver's seat of her SUV. “Addy?”
He waved tiredly at her.
“Why aren't you in the hospital?” Loretta crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. “And don't even think about lying to me and telling me they let you out. I know the doctors didn't release you.”
“Cal and Breedlove jail-broke me,” Addison admitted.
“That was incredibly stupid of them. You're still very much injured.” Loretta leaned on the passenger's side door of the car.
“I'll be fine.” Addison blinked innocently at her. “Besides, I'm fixing to go right back to the hospital just as soon as I leave here.”